Tips on how to get started!

Getting started is tough and it’s not unique to you or I, in fact Dawson Trotman once said “The greatest time wasted, is the time getting started!”

If you are having difficulty getting started, I suggest you ask yourself WHAT?
W = Why
H = How
A = Action
T = Time

There is no magic formula, but if you get the WHAT sorted, it will assist you a great deal. Everyone has their unique Why, so spend some time discovering your Why. Is it for Health, Fitness, a Challenge, changing your Lifestyle, becoming more Productive, or simply wanting to do things with the kids?

Most people consider the HAT (How, Action, Time) the most difficult, but truth be told if you have a strong enough Why, you will make the HAT happen.

Steve Waugh once said and I live by this motto..
“If you want something to happen with all of your heart, you will always find ways to make it happen: If you do not really want it with all your heart, you will find an excuse to explain why it did not happen!”

The Why has become part of my DNA. Since 2004 I have been racing in memory of my Stepson Reece Walton, who tragically passed away at 19. Reece was the catalyst to me Getting Started, the spark that ignited an inferno that drove me to train harder. I still think of Reece every time I race and now my Why is because I enjoy it so much, I enjoy training with my kids and encouraging them, I love helping and encouraging others to Dream, to go after their Goals and to Transform.

Here is a little exercise to enable you to understand that time isn’t indefinite, or waiting around for you to get started. Ask yourself the following Questions, take a Pen and Paper and jot down a few answers:
1. If a Dr told you that you had 10 years left, but would be able to live a healthy life, what would you do differently? Anything, or is there still no urgency? Remember, if you do the same things this year that you did last year, not much will change, although you may get unfitter, poorer, more unhappy and even relationships may become more strained.
2. If a Dr told you that you had 2 years left, but are still able to live a healthy life, would you do anything differently? I am sure you that you would immediately start planning on doing a few of the things that are important to you. Time for Action yet?
3. Now imagine a Dr told you that you only had 24 hours to live! Time to ask yourself what you didn’t do, that you said you would do Tomorrow, as now there will be no Tomorrow. What did you not get to do, who did you not get to be, how will you be remembered?

So hopefully you now have the Why and the next part of the equation is the How! One thing you do not want to do is to try and re invent the wheel, or pay unnecessary school fees, which may seem like the cheaper option but it will waste the most prescious commodity of all = TIME, or it could derail your whole plan. So my suggestion is to seek professional guidance, it may seem unnecessary or expensive, but paying for professional advice is cheap at the price.

There are great Coaches around, whose life revolves around using their experience to assist others, so tap into this knowledge. I have some ambitious Ironman goals and even though I have all the knowledge in the world and decades of experience, I have decided to seek professional help once more. I have recently signed up with Raynard and Natlie Tissink, #TeamTissink, who have so much experience between the two of them and are extremely passionate about what they do. My motivation is to ensure that I maximise my time and effort, to have structure in my weeks and very importantly to have somebody to be accountable to (important for me).

Coach Raynard Tissink with 2 new members of #TeamTissink, Martin Von Alleman and I

In 2010 and 2011 I trained alongside Raynard and learnt so much from him, was so inspired and motivated to train and had the best two years of my sporting career, including an Age Group Gold at the World 70.3 Championships in Las Vegas 2011. Is there any coincidence that my performances suffered once Ray and Natalie moved to Cape Town and I opted to go it alone? No, it is a proven fact that athletes who have Coaches do better than they would without a Coach.

So you have the Why and if you source the ideal Guide, or Coach, they will tell you the How and thereafter if you take Action consistently over Time, you will be well on your way to achieving your Goals. Better still if you know your Why, if your Coach is telling you How and you make the Time, then Action happens automatically, so let’s fast forward to Time!

What isn’t scheduled (or measured) rarely gets done, so scheduling is very important. Your Coach can provide you with a Programme with sessions scheduled, but if your day is too cluttered it still may not happen. Many of us are so busy we focus upon the Urgent and not the Important and the Urgent clutters our desk, our mind and our time. So make sure you schedule what is Important (Training, Family, Work and so forth). Example, if you go to work with your swim/gym stuff in the car and intend to shoot out of the office for an hour when you get time, it may not happen, but if you schedule an hour in your diary to do just that, it in all likelihood will happen. So plan your Diary, schedule your training sessions and increase your chances of success.

The Big 5? Most multi sport athletes think of Knysna and Tourists think of wildlife when the Big 5 is mentioned, but for me the Big 5 takes on a whole new meaning. Big 5 has to do with ‘To Do’ Lists or in my case the ‘Not To Do’ Lists. Firstly, if your ‘To Do’ List has more than 5 things on it, chances are that very little gets done as it will be too intimidating, which leads to Procrastination and ask yourself honestly, “Do I procrastinate?” I would suggest turning your ‘To Do’ List on its head and focus upon a ‘Not To Do’ List, which is exactly what I do.

Think about it there are probably less than a handful of things that cause you to Procrastinate, that waste your valuable Time and derail you from Achieving what is truly Important to You!

So have a ‘Not To Do’ List and watch your everyday Life transform into one of efficiency and effectiveness.
Example: Ten years ago I found myself playing Solitaire (computer card game) and being ultra competitive, I played the expert option and one day it took me 4 hours of non stop play to secure a win. That night I realised that I was wasting hours daily playing something that only brought me short term satisfaction, but was meaningless in the bigger scheme of things. It certainly wasn’t on my bucket list and it wouldn’t help me achieve my goals, in fact it would ensure I wouldn’t achieve much in life. So I called the IT guy and asked him to delete all the Games on my Computer and I haven’t played a game since.

SO arm yourself with a ‘Not To Do’ List and be honest when asking yourself what are the Anchors holding you back from achieving your full potential? Is it Social Media, the need to check in on Facebook or Twitter every half hour? Is it playing Games or doing Crossword Puzzles? Whatever it is, put it on the List and focus upon eradicating it, reducing time spent on it, or simply schedule some time for it after asking yourself how much time you would like to allocate to it. I bet you wouldn’t purposely say I am going to give away 2 hours everyday to my Facebook friends, many of whom may be strangers and play no meaningful role in your life. Simply reducing and then scheduling time will make you more productive and you will feel better for it.

In Summary, ask yourself W.H.A.T. it is you want to Achieve and Why, then you can “Leave your Hat On” and the rest will take care of itself. Wishing you all the best in your pursuit of doing things differently and achieving your Goals and remember this. A Goal is a Promise you make to yourself and if you can’t trust yourself to keep a Promise, who can you trust?

“A Dream is like a cloud floating aimlessly in the sky, unless you commit your Dream to stone (Paper)!”- Alec Riddle

YES, you Can, you Will, you Want to!!

How to Achieve your Dreams!

                                                                               

Should it matter which season is almost upon us?

Instead of us putting off to next season what we could be getting started with this season, why not heed the words of Dawson Trotman and get started Today? Trotman said “The greatest time wasted is the time getting started!”

“The Greatest time wasted is the time getting started!”-Dawson Trotman

If I think back to when I was unfit and overweight, I felt more fatigued and more likely to waste my days in front of the TV, or spending time under the duvet. All very nice, if you want your life just to fly on by! I fell asleep at the wheel of life for 10 years and they were gone in the blink of an eye. I was a Heart Attack looking for a place to happen and I knew I had to change. Are you happy with your Life, in particular your Health and Fitness or are you seeking change?

Remember your Health is a Gift and there is no second chance should you abuse it. If your heart is disgruntled and attacks you, you may survive but the quality of your life will be compromised. Funny thing is many people work themselves to a standstill in pursuit of money and worldly treasures, compromising their family and their relationships but no amount of money in the world can repair your body if you abuse it by being idle and living an unhealthy lifestyle.

The height of insanity is doing the same things this year that we did last year, expecting a different result. Truth is if we do the same things this winter as we did last winter, we will actually have slipped a little more and entrenched our bad habits even more. Remember this, if you are not consciously focussed on developing good habits, then you will sub consciously be defaulting to bad habits.

So let us focus on what we can do… to change, to cultivate good habits, to reinvent ourselves? Firstly I will focus on the Why and then I will focus on the How!

The Why? Besides the fact that you will feel better, look better (and your friends will tell you so you before you properly notice the change) and have more energy, a key reason will be for your health.

Exercising, even just a little, will improve your health, but it can also go a long way in preventing the onset of several life-threatening conditions. Looking at a few of the benefits….

Your Heart
Exercising regularly will raise your heart rate AND very importantly reduces hardening of the arteries, which is a major cause of high blood pressure. High Blood Pressure can lead to heart disease and stroke. Exercising regularly lowers your resting heart rate which implies that more blood is being pumped per beat and now your heart won’t be working as hard as it once was. Exercising regularly also lowers and helps control your blood pressure.

Mental Health
Exercising regularly also reduces stress and anxiety. Some Medical studies show that exercising regularly decreases the likelihood that you will suffer from depression or insomnia and improves your overall quality of life. Looking better and feeling fitter boosts your self-esteem and confidence. It teaches you about good habits, motivation, setting goals and commitment, which can be transferred to other areas of your life, such as your career, your studies, your family and your relationships. I find exercising gives me time to plan and to think, enabling me to be more effective in the workplace, which also leads to a reduction in stress.

It gets a little worse before it gets a whole lot better!

More options
The fitter you are, the more options you have in life. How often have you turned down the option of doing something adventurous with your children or friends because you thought you may not be able to keep up? By exercising regularly it opens up new options and you are able to accept invitations or to take up challenges that you previously thought impossible. As you progress you will start new activities, which will lead to you meeting new people and exercising or playing sports with friends, or newly found friends, which helps transform your life.

It is highly recommended that healthy people build up to 30 minutes (or more) of moderate exercise three or four times per week. But remember to speak to your doctor before starting an exercise programme. Hopefully the above is sufficient reason to want to know how, so let’s consider a few tips.

The How? Before we move on to the How, I would like to encourage you to find a quiet place for half an hour, be it the Beach, under a Tree, away from traffic, people, amongst nature. Then allow your mind to wander, to dream, to think about the future, to think about your present and your past. Then on a pad jot down what you don’t like about your current lifestyle and what you would like to do, to become…. This is the start of something very important in life!

Imagine you were told that you had 24 hours to live? What didn’t you do? Who did you not get to be? Did you live out your Dreams? How many things did you tick off your Bucket List?

Vision

You need to have a Vision and the best definition I’ve heard is from Bill Hybels in his book ‘Courageous Leadership’ who says “Vision is a picture of the Future that produces Passion!” What is it that could possibly do that for you? What will give you sufficient Passion to want to get out of your Comfort Zone and Transform your Life? Whatever it may be, don’t go to your grave with the dance still inside of you. We were all gifted Talents from God, our gift to Him is what we do with those Talents and I’m not talking performance here, I’m simply talking about being fit and healthy, leading us to be better Fathers, Husbands, Brothers.

Dreams

Dreams are like clouds floating aimlessly in the sky (a wish), unless you commit them to a Plan (a need). Hence the reason I suggested jotting down your thoughts on paper, just very broadly at first as we need to understand Goal Setting before we set Goals on how to get there. In time a Journal will prove to be one of your biggest and best aids, as you plot and plan and record your progress. A Journal helps you to remain super focussed and what you focus upon you get in time!

Goals

Once we have a Vision, you need to set some Goals, S.M.A.R.T. Goals. Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time Bound. The key here is to set an Achievable Goal, but one that is fairly challenging that it excites you enough to want to try and achieve it. A Goal is simply a Promise you make to yourself, so make sure you can keep the Promise!

Once you achieve the first Goal, you are making Progress and it is Progress that fuels our Motivation. It’s the first step to becoming Successful in Life and Success is doing what you said you would do. Period!!

So be wary of setting Goals that are too ambitious, just less than a Decade ago I set myself a Goal of running 30 minutes 3 times/week. Initially I could not run 20 minutes without stopping, but in time I achieved what now seems like a simplistic goal (I weighed a Ton then and it seemed like a Mountain) but that freed me to start dreaming of bigger things such as completing an Ironman.

Perseverance

Sometimes we are very close to achieving our Goals, but we don’t Persevere and we quit and this becomes a habit, it becomes part of our make-up. So if you do decide to chase a Dream, a Vision, a Goal it’s important to understand that it can take 14-21 days to break the shackles of bad habits, which in a short space of time can become good habits and enjoyable ones too. The key is being bold enough to take that first step.

As much as you won’t feel like it at times, just put your kit on, get outside or into the Gym and take that first step, as that is the hardest part of the whole equation….. The First Step to getting started and the First Step to every scheduled exercise session, if you can do that you will be successful. When faced with agonising decisions, things like TV (over exercise) or Muffins (over weight loss) simply stop and ask yourself will this take me closer to, or further away from my Goal? If you are focussed, the right answer wins the day so ask yourself often W.I.N. (What’s Important Now?)!

When the going gets tough, it’s time for you to toughen up and persevere and if you can look yourself in the mirror at the end of each day and say ‘I did what I set out to do today’, then Failure becomes an Impossibility and everything else in Life becomes a distinct Possibility.

Summary

-Cast a Vision, your Dreams for your Life.

-Commit it to paper (plan) and keep a record of your progress (Journal).

-Set Achievable Goals and work your way up the ladder.

-Just get started as it all starts with that very first step.

-Persevere, every storm will pass.

-Ask yourself W.I.N.

-Look yourself in the Mirror and Smile…. You are a Winner!